The 75 Hard challenge, a 75-day self-improvement regime involving two daily 45-minute workouts, clean eating, drinking eight pints of water, and reading 10 pages of nonfiction, has seen a resurgence in popularity. Comedian Paddy McGuinness has credited the programme, started in 2019 by podcaster Andy Frisella, for his physical transformation from a normal soft-bodied human into a muscular figure.
Emma Beddington, a columnist, has expressed a masochistic interest in such challenges but has chosen to devise her own alternative. She proposes a '75 gentle' programme focused on joy, including stroking an animal, eating a childhood favourite, napping, sharing a wholesome meme, drinking 10 cups of a preferred hot drink, and buying daffodils. Failure is permitted, but only if participants purchase her branded 'pre-nap' biscuits.
Other ideas she considered include an intellectual '75 hard' involving reading difficult texts like 'Gravity's Rainbow' or 'Being and Time', composing sonnets, learning calculus and a new language, and listening to 'In Our Time' episodes. She also workshopped '75 housetrained', a domestic reeducation regime covering recycling, bin duties, and meal planning.
Beddington concludes that a programme for squeezing joy from winter is more bankable, emphasising kindness and revenue generation through branded products.
